Trans-Atlantic Speedboat Nears Completion
One of the first trans-Atlantic aero speedboats, the Silver Eagle, will soon be tested in Massachusetts. It has a wing span of 48 feet and powered by two Liberty motors. Each prop is 9 ft., 4 in. Jong. A speed of 90 m.p.h, is expected. It is 40 ft. long, will carry 1100 gals, of gas and 32 passengers. The boat has a number of new and novel features that are expected to be noteworthy contributions to aeronautic and engineering knowledge.

ONE of the “hush-hush” items of America’s defense effort is a radically new type of boat known as the “Sea Otter.” A one-third size model of the new boat is shown at the top. At right is a full-scale “Sea Otter,” showing its novel pointed prow. The propeller is just aft of the center of the ship. Powered with 16 six-cylinder automobile motors, “Sea Otters” can be turned out in two months, will be 270 feet long, carry 1,500 tons of cargo, and have a cruising range of 7,000 miles.

Ralph Barter Has Made A Fortune Out Of The Things People Didn’t Want I Read How This Down East Rothschild Overcame The Handicap Of Losing An Arm—And, In So Doing, Made Himself Into An Institution I

by Bud Martin

“LAD ’tis best you leave the islands.”

George Barter spoke to his twenty-six-year-old son just back from World War 1, minus an arm lost in the Argonne. “You’ve been a good lobsterman, but the old days and the old ways can never be again for you. A seagull can’t soar with one wing, and a man can’t handle a pitching smallboat with one hand. Better forget it.”

The fate of our navy hangs on the outcome of the most dangerous and dramatic maneuver ever known!

BY JAMES KEVIN MILLER

OUT in the lonely atoll of Bikini, 4,150 miles southwest of San Francisco, the curtain of the first act of one of history’s greatest dramas, Operation Crossroads, is about to rise. A production staff of 20,000 scientists and technologists has assembled the supporting cast and props. The dress rehearsal has been held, and the vast stage is set.

For the stellar role, an A-bomb of the power used on Nagasaki will be dropped from a B-29 on about 100 surplus and obsolete ships.

Photos of a German water channel bridge that accommodates barges may be found here

Sky Seaways?

INCREASING traffic on the roads of the United States has made it necessary, especially since the development of the automobile, to separate the levels of railroad tracks, and even through viaducts, for cars and trucks, from the local streets and roads. The cost of this work, to a Nineteenth Century engineer, would have been prohibitive, even though he had the technical skill to do it. Yet it has been and is being done; even though the railroads protest that their share of it is an undue burden in prosperous times. But people no longer have time to “stop, look and listen.” It is not the toll of lives on grade crossings, but the loss of time, that compels their abolition.

Glider-Boat
IN ITS unceasing efforts to save lives at sea, the Coast Guard is developing the glider-boat rescue unit illustrated here. Towed by powerful aircraft, the device would be released over the scene of disaster. After gliding to the water, it would jettison its wings and tail and take on the function of a motor boat. Designers hope eventually to make use of the wings and tail of CG4A gliders, produced in quantity during the war. The craft will be built so that it can be hoisted aboard rescue ships arriving upon the scene.